Odeon Cinemas

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Odeon Cinemas
Founded 1928
Founder(s) Oscar Deutsch
Owner(s) Terra Firma Capital Partners
Parent Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group
Website www.odeon.co.uk www.odeoncinemas.ie

Odeon Cinemas is a British chain of cinemas, one of the largest in Europe. It is owned by Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group whose ultimate parent is Terra Firma Capital Partners.

Contents

History [edit]

The Odeon in Leicester Square, London

Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch. Odeon publicists have claimed that the name of the cinemas was derived from his motto, "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation",[1] but it had been used for cinemas in France and Italy in the 1920s, and the word is ultimately derived from Ancient Greek.[2] The name "Nickelodeon" was coined in 1905 and was widely used to describe small movie theatres in the United States during that era.

However the company is most associated with J. Arthur Rank, the owner for the longest period in its history.

The first cinema opened by Oscar Deutsch was located in Brierley Hill, England in 1928.[3] The building has long since been demolished, but as of 2006, the former UCI Cinema (built in the 1980s as an AMC multiplex) at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Brierley Hill was refurbished as an Odeon Cinema. However, its style is more functional than that of original Odeon cinemas, with the Company now being managed by the largely multiplex style UCI group.

The former Odeon Cinema on The Headrow in Leeds. This is now a Primark branch.

The first cinema that opened under the "Odeon" brand was located in Perry Barr, Birmingham.[4][5] It was designed by Harry Weedon. The frontage was remodelled following damage sustained in World War II and, having been a bingo hall, has since been converted into a conference venue.

By 1930, "Odeon" was a household name and the cinemas known for their maritime-inspired Art Deco architecture. This style was first used in 1930 on the cinema at Perry Barr in Birmingham, which was bought by Deutsch to expand the chain. He liked the style so much that he commissioned the architect, Harry Weedon, to design his future buildings.[6] George Coles was also one of their principal architects, remodelling a partially complete assembly hall in Portslade and designing his first purpose-built cinema in Upper Wickham Lane, Welling, Kent which opened on 22 October 1934 and closed on 22 October 1960. It is currently a bingo club in the Mecca chain. It featured central linear lighting, a feature that became characteristic of his work.

In 1935, Oscar Deutsch commissioned John Maltby (1910–80), a professional photographer, to photograph every cinema in the Odeon chain at that time. The resulting collection, of internal and external photographs, is held in the public archive of English Heritage and can be seen online.

Deutsch sold the chain to the business interests of J. Arthur Rank, who was in the process of forming the Rank Organisation.

In just 10 years between the first of the cinemas and Deutsch's death in 1941, 258 Odeons opened throughout Britain.[7] After the sale to J. Arthur Rank Corporation, Odeon also operated a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary, Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd., with more than a hundred cinemas in Canada, coast-to-coast. The head office of Odeon Canada was in Toronto, Ontario, and later, the north Toronto suburb of Willowdale, Ontario. This business was sold in 1978 to the Canadian Theatres chain and became Canadian Odeon Theatres, then was sold again in 1984 to Cineplex, forming Cineplex Odeon (now, once again, Cineplex). It also owned fifty percent of an Australian subsidiary, Greater Union Organisation, based in Sydney, Australia, with dozens of cinemas across Australia. The Rank Organisation's share of GUO was sold to Amalgamated Holdings Ltd., an Australian company, also in 1984; GUO is now known as Event Cinemas.

The Odeon in Thornbury, West Yorkshire

Each Odeon cinema had a character different from most other cinemas in the UK, often having a unique and spectacular interior. They also ran their own advertising company, called Rank Screen Advertising, in competition with the UK market leader Pearl & Dean, which it eventually overtook.

A smaller number of Odeon cinemas opened in the post-war years (Odeon Marble Arch and Odeon Elephant & Castle being notable instances), but many single-screen cinemas either closed, sub-divided into smaller screens or were converted into other uses, such as bingo.

Present day [edit]

Since the turn of the century, Odeon has undergone a series of sales after The Rank Group needed cash injections to reduce their debt, firstly to Cinven which merged Odeon with Cinven's ABC Cinemas. In 2004, the chain was purchased by Terra Firma and merged with United Cinemas International to produce the largest cinema chain in Europe.[8] As a condition of this merger (imposed by the Office of Fair Trading), Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Sutton Coldfield, Poole, Quinton, Hemel Hempstead and London Bromley have been sold to Empire Cinemas. Many smaller, older cinemas such as Odeon Grimsby on Freeman Street were closed down to keep market-share within legal limits. The remaining UCI cinemas, including thefilmworks brands, were rebranded as Odeon from 4 November 2005.

An Odeon Cinema at Westfield Merry Hill, Brierley Hill, West Midlands

UCI cinemas in Ireland have also joined the Odeon chain, and while they initially retained the UCI brand name, evidence of the merger became apparent, for example when booking tickets by credit card, the name "Odeon" appears, as well as some dual branded campaigns. The Odeon in-house film review magazine, "Onscreen", is now also distributed in UCI cinemas, retaining the Odeon logo font throughout. In August 2007, UCI launched a new Irish website with an identical layout to odeon.co.uk. This website states that the Irish cinemas were sold to an Irish group, Entertainment Enterprises, in September 2006. This transaction went unreported in the Irish media. It also states that the cinemas remain part of the Odeon chain under a management contract. Rank/Odeon previously ran cinemas in Ireland (including the flagship, the Savoy Cinema in O'Connell Street) until 1982, when they were purchased by Ward Anderson. In April 2008, Entertainment Enterprises announced that it purchased the Irish assets of Storm Cinemas, and as with the existing UCI chain, would be contracting the running of the cinemas to Odeon. On 31 May 2011, Odeon announced that it had bought back the UCI chain in Ireland (including the Storm Cinemas-branded locations) from Entertainment Enterprises.[9] Odeon is to rebrand all of Irish cinemas under the Odeon brand during 2012, and will open its first cinema under its own brand on 27 March 2012.[10]

In Bradford, England there has been a concerted effort to save their Bradford Odeon, which closed in 2000. Bradford City Council have plans to demolish the art-deco building and replace it with a new complex of shops and offices. Campaigners have made seven separate attempts to have the building listed, all of which have been rejected. A poll cited on BBC Radio Leeds showed the majority of city residents wished to save the Odeon.

In 2007 Odeon acquired 10 cinemas in Italy.[11] It is now the largest cinema chain in Europe.[12] It is currently the largest cinema chain in Britain in terms of sites, however it has fallen to the third most popular cinema in terms of admissions under UCI Group's ownership after years of being the Market Leader under the previous management of Rank and Cinven. In March 2012, the Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group under Terra Firma's control reported a £70 million loss for the year 2011, as posted on Companies House.

Odeon have plans for further expansion within the UK and have announced they will be operating an eight-screen cinema at New Square, West Bromwich.[13]

Many of the Cinemas have a Costa Coffee coffee shop, a Ben & Jerry's ice cream kiosk, a bar area and an IMAX auditorium.

Venues [edit]

United Kingdom [edit]

Ireland [edit]

Controversies [edit]

Website accessibility [edit]

For an extended period the Odeon cinema listings website was accessible only to Microsoft license-holders running certain versions of Internet Explorer, a design decision which frustrated many, and allegedly contravened the Disability Discrimination Act.

Technologist Matthew Somerville attempted to draw the public's attention to Odeon's dismissal of his concerns, and prove that there were no technical obstacles to providing a more usable alternative design. His 'Accessible Odeon' harvested information from the company's website and redelivered it using established web standards, also making it possible for non-Microsoft browsers to submit online bookings. His site received wide coverage and acclaim in UK newspapers and across the web.

Odeon initially took a public stance which accepted his contribution, and promised not to seek closure of the site. However, In June 2004, Odeon demanded that Somerville remove the facility provided to users of non Microsoft software to book films online, threatening copyright and trade mark infringement and suggesting that criminal proceedings could be brought under the Data Protection Act. Finally they insisted that unless the site be removed altogether, legal action would be taken. Somerville complied and shut down the site.

Refusals to screen certain films [edit]

In 2008, Odeon made a controversial move by refusing to screen Rambo on any of its UK screens, blaming it on "commercial differences".[citation needed] In 2010 Odeon and a couple of other multiplex cinema chains attempted to boycott Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, but after negotiations with Disney, Odeon and the other cinema chains backed down.[citation needed]

Public customer complaint [edit]

On 24 August 2012, a customer named Matt Pledger posted a complaint on Odeon's Facebook wall about his experience with the cinema, citing high ticket prices, high food prices, inattentive staff, sound bleeding through from the cinema next door, and displaying adverts on how piracy was killing film.[14] The complaint eventually went viral, with over 275,000 'Likes' and over 23,000 comments as of 3 September 2012, as well as receiving attention from the national media,[15][16][17][18] including a programme feature on BBC Radio 4.[19]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "From bargain-bin store to bingo hall, the sad fate of the Odeon popcorn palaces". London: The Daily Mail. 12 May 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2009. 
  2. ^ "Odeon". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 2012-12-20. 
  3. ^ Keith Farley. "The Coming of the 'Talkies' and the 'Super' Cinemas". Wolverhamton History & Heritage Site. Retrieved 2012-12-20. 
  4. ^ Gorst, Thom (1995). The Buildings Around Us. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-419-19330-8. 
  5. ^ "20th Century to the present". Digital Handsworth. Retrieved 2012-12-20. 
  6. ^ "Cinema History For Sale At First Odeon". Birmingham Evening Mail. August 11, 1998. Retrieved 2012-12-20. 
  7. ^ Jonathan Glancey (18 May 2002). "The mogul's monuments: How Oscar Deutsch's Odeon cinemas taught Britain to love modern architecture". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-12-20. 
  8. ^ "About Us". Odeon Cinemas. Retrieved 2012-12-20. 
  9. ^ Lynch, Suzanne (1 June 2011). "Butler brothers sell nine Irish cinemas to Odeon ICI". The Irish Times. 
  10. ^ "About Us". Odeon Ireland. Retrieved 2012-12-20. 
  11. ^ Wendy Mitchell (19 June 2007). "UCI Italia buys 10 cinemas from Cinestar Italia". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2012-12-20. 
  12. ^ Georg Szalai (15 August 2012). "Odeon UCI Cinemas Second-Quarter Loss Narrows". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2012-12-20. 
  13. ^ "Next to create 80 jobs at West Bromwich store « Express & Star". Expressandstar.com. 2011-09-24. Retrieved 2012-11-07. 
  14. ^ "Dear Odeon, I went...". Facebook. Retrieved 2012-11-07. 
  15. ^ "Going to the cinema: does this rant against Odeon strike a chord? | Stephen Kelly | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. 2012-08-30. Retrieved 2012-11-07. 
  16. ^ Alice Jones (2012-08-31). "Alice Jones: Please don't kill the magic of the movies - Commentators - Voices". The Independent. Retrieved 2012-11-07. 
  17. ^ "Odeon Facebook rant goes viral". The Periscope Post. 2012-08-31. Retrieved 2012-11-07. 
  18. ^ Steven Vass (2012-09-01). "The multiplex backlash". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 2012-11-07. 
  19. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, How do you rate your cinema? , Is the cinema value for money?". Bbc.co.uk. 1970-01-01. Retrieved 2012-11-07. 

Further reading [edit]

  • Eyles, Allen (2002) Odeon Cinemas; Vol. 1: "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation". London : Cinema Theatre Association ISBN 0-85170-813-7
  • Eyles, Allen (2005) Odeon Cinemas; Vol. 2: From J. Arthur Rank to the Multiplex. London : Cinema Theatre Association ISBN 1-84457-048-7

External links [edit]
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